


Insubordinate

by sciencefictioness



Series: Legacy [5]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Collars, Dom Gabriel, Dom/sub, Gabe is Poly, Hair-pulling, M/M, Pre-Legacy, Safe Sane and Consensual, Spanking, Sub Jesse, mentions of r76
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 03:14:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15787806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciencefictioness/pseuds/sciencefictioness
Summary: This wasn’t for Jesse, or at least not primarily for him, and Gabriel tried not to feel shitty about it— about needing Jesse to do exactly as he said, exactly when he said it.Needing Jesse on his knees for a while to keep himself from shaking.Jesse obeyed without hesitation, peeling his shirt over his head and kicking off his boots, but he hadn’t finished shucking his pants before Gabriel had a fist in his hair.  He wrenched his head back, urging Jesse to arch his spine as he struggled to wiggle out of his clothes, uniform kicked into a messy pile.  There were bruises blossoming across Jesse’s ribs on one side, red darkening into violet where he’d taken some kind of hit.  His bottom lip was split, and there was a cut across his nose.  Tiny, faded like the graze on his cheek, but Gabriel could already tell it might not ever fully go away.More scars, like Jesse hadn’t had enough in the first place, but at least the old ones weren’t his fault.These new wounds were all for Gabriel.





	Insubordinate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roughlycut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roughlycut/gifts).



> Pre-Legacy, set several months after Tactile. For [ roughlycut,](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roughlycut/pseuds/roughlycut) whose works you should go give a read if you haven't.

There was nothing but static on the majority of Gabriel’s screens.  Nothing but white noise in his ears. Blinking questions marks on his map instead of locator beacons, and Gabriel switched channels on his comm, and took a breath.

 

Kept his voice steady, when he wanted to scream.

 

“Holliday, do you copy?  I need a sitrep immediately.”

 

Feedback screeched over the line, and Gabriel recoiled with a wince.  Switched channels and tried again, heart thrumming wild behind his ribs, palms sweating.

 

“Fallout, do you copy?  What’s your location?”

 

There was a squawk, and some more static, and then Fio’s voice filled his ear.

 

“Fallout inbound to the evac point, ETA two minutes.  Eyes on Rapture at the evac site, taking light fire from the east.  No eyes on Holliday, comms down for all squads on the ground.”

 

“Copy that.  Keep this line open, and keep your eyes peeled for Holliday squad.  You don’t go wheels up without them, not without my say so, you copy?”

 

“Rapture’s in bad shape, and that’s as of a half hour ago.  Khatri’s wounded, and Xiao took a shot through her armor. This storm is fucking with my controls, and it’s getting worse, fast.  With respect, we need to call a secondary evac in on standby, and get-”

 

“With respect, I said  _ wait.   _ You hear me, Alessi?” Gabriel said, and there was a heavy beat of silence on the line.

 

“Understood.  Beginning descent, coming in hot.”

 

Gabriel gritted his teeth, and swallowed, nodding at no one in particular.  Most of the techs in control had fucked off when it was readily apparent they weren’t getting communications back online.

 

When it was readily apparent Gabriel was losing his shit.  They lurked on the edges of the room, tapping away on their tablets, trying in vain to do their jobs when it was pretty much futile.

 

Nobody had heard from Holliday squad since an EMP had blown most of their comms a half hour ago.  Things had already been going to shit— bad intel, bad timing, bad weather. Jesse had gotten separated from the rest of his squad, and it hadn’t looked good for them.  Looked even worse for Jesse if he tried to cross the firing line to get to them, but he had the rest of their biotics.

 

Couldn’t prioritize the mission over his men.

 

Couldn’t prioritize  _ himself  _ over his men.

 

The last thing Gabriel had said to him was hissed through the comms with vicious desperation, Gabe’s heart in his throat and his guts tied in knots.

_ Don’t you fucking  _ dare,  _ Jesse. _

 

Now he wondered if it was the last thing he’d ever say to Jesse.  The last thing Jesse would ever hear.

 

Don’t you fucking dare.

 

Gabriel watched the feed from the camera mounted on Fio’s transport; the only feed that was worth a damn, even through the rain.  The evac point came into focus as she descended, her door gunner deftly picking off stray mercenaries to clear Rapture’s way. The closer she got to the ground the less Gabriel could actually see through the cams, until there was nothing but dirt and gravel on his screen.  

 

Fio was shouting, suddenly, so loud in Gabe’s ear that he winced.

 

“Eyes on Holliday, nine o’clock!  Wolfgang, covering fire, get my boys the fuck in this bird so we can go!”

 

“Alessi?”  Gabe asked, but there was no answer, the comm lines a flurry of yelling and gunfire.  Something exploded somewhere on their end, a loud and raucous blast, and Gabriel listened to debris clattering into the side of the evac transport, and swallowed heavily.

 

_ “Alessi,”  _ Gabriel tried again, but Fio was yelling orders over the rhythmic noise of a submachine gun, shrill hull damage warnings ringing in the background.

 

“Goddamnit, Fio, talk to me!”  

 

There was a rustling sound, and Fio yelped indignantly but her voice sounded far away, and then-

 

“Hey there, boss man,” Jesse drawled, and Gabriel leaned forward to rest his head on the table in front of him, and let all the air in his lungs out in a rush.  Took a moment to inhale, and exhale. To let his heartbeat slow into something less frantic.

 

To listen to Jesse breathe.

 

“Don’t you  _ boss man  _ me, agent,” he started as he sat up, “you defied my direct orders, putting both yourself and the mission at risk.  I want you reporting directly to me as soon as you’re on the ground,” Gabriel spat, and he hoped it sounded like a reprimand, instead of a plea.  

 

Hoped it wasn’t obvious just how much he needed to put his hands on Jesse, make sure he was really, truly all right.

 

He waited for Jesse’s smart-ass response.  For his sass, or his sarcasm, but it never came.

 

“I’m sorry, boss.  Sera was hit, and I had the biotics, and I couldn’t…  I couldn’t do it again, Gabriel. I couldn’t.”

 

The noise in the background had faded into nothing, and Gabriel knew right where Jesse was on the transport, the precise corner he’d secreted himself away in.  Gabriel sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

 

“You get yourself and your squad squared away, and you get your after action preliminary filed en route.  I want you in front of me as soon as you’re out of the air. It appears you need further instruction on how to follow basic commands,” he ordered, and Jesse’s answer was immediate.

 

“Yes, sir.  I understand, sir.”

 

He didn’t, but he would.

 

-

 

It was a bit over an hour before Jesse showed up at his door.  Gabriel filed his reports, and checked in with the medics, and read over the initial debriefs, all his due diligence performed on autopilot.  An afterthought, things his body did without conscious effort after all these years, and Gabriel didn’t know whether to be bitter or grateful that the military had turned into someone so predictable.  

 

Then Jesse was there, the door whirring closed behind him and locking with a noisy click.  Gabriel spun around slowly in his chair and leaned back, fingertips of one hand tapping staccato on an armrest, stylus twirling restlessly in the other.  He took Jesse in with keen eyes, searching for injuries automatically, even if he knew Jesse was mostly okay from all the files he’d just gone through. A close thing— he’d almost eaten bullet from a sniper, and there was a graze across his cheek, faded from biotics but visible nonetheless.

 

A couple of inches, and Holliday squad would have brought back a body instead of Gabe’s boy.

 

Jesse was still bloody, still dressed in the leftovers of his tactical gear— no weapons, no armor, but the rest remained.  Jesse smelled like gunpowder with dirt streaked across his forehead, standing in parade rest. Back straight, feet squared, eyes up, chest out.

 

Good little soldier, like he hadn’t just defied Gabriel’s orders and damn near gotten himself killed.  

 

Like Gabriel hadn’t almost lost a piece of himself he could never get back.

 

He stood up from his desk, and tried to calm himself.  The anger he felt was misdirected, misplaced— Jesse had defied an order, but Gabriel wasn’t really mad at him.

 

He was furious that someone could take Jesse from him so easily.  A stray bullet, a well-aimed blade, a wide blast radius. Gabriel had been through this with Jack before, but at least they’d been fighting side by side back then.  Jesse and Gabriel didn’t often get that luxury, and Jack spent most of his time in an office now, filing requests and arguing with the UN. Golden boy turned paper pusher, and he’d more than done his part.  Saved the fucking world, arguably, or at least parts of it, but he wasn’t in any danger most days.

 

Jesse, though.

 

Jesse put on armor, and strapped on weapons, and headed out into the fray.  Time and time again, without hesitation.

 

Because  _ Gabriel  _ sent him there, and he wasn’t mad at Jesse.

 

He was mad at himself.

 

Wondered if this was how Jackson felt when he handed Gabriel a file that would send him somewhere halfway around the world and drop him in a pit of snakes.

 

“Color,” he asked, voice dangerously even.

 

The way it got when Gabriel had to stop it from breaking.

 

“Green, sir,” Jesse replied, waiting, expectant.  When Gabriel didn’t answer Jesse’s eyes went soft.  

 

Understanding, like he knew what Gabriel was thinking, how he was teetering just on the edge of violence.

 

“It’s okay, sir.  I want you to.”

 

Gabriel’s fists clenched, and unclenched, focus shrinking down until the whole world was only Jesse.  

 

Warm, and vital, and alive.

 

“Strip,” he ordered, and it sounded like they were in a training sim or headed out for a mission instead of alone in Gabriel’s quarters.  There was no softness there, no coaxing. When Gabe dommed Jesse it was always meticulously affectionate; Jesse was his good boy, and Gabe wanted him to know.

 

This was different.  This wasn’t for Jesse, or at least not primarily for him, and Gabriel tried not to feel shitty about it— about needing Jesse to do exactly as he said, exactly when he said it.

 

Needing Jesse on his knees for a while to keep himself from shaking.

 

Jesse obeyed without hesitation, peeling his shirt over his head and kicking off his boots, but he hadn’t finished shucking his pants before Gabriel had a fist in his hair.  He wrenched his head back, urging Jesse to arch his spine as he struggled to wiggle out of his clothes, uniform kicked into a messy pile. There were bruises blossoming across Jesse’s ribs on one side, red darkening into violet where he’d taken some kind of hit.  His bottom lip was split, and there was a cut across his nose. Tiny, faded like the graze on his cheek, but Gabriel could already tell it might not ever fully go away. 

 

More scars, like Jesse hadn’t had enough in the first place, but at least the old ones weren’t his fault.

 

These new wounds were all for Gabriel.

 

“Kneel,” Gabriel said, tugging on his hair to urge him downward, and Jesse staggered to the ground under the force of it.

 

Gabriel nudged roughly at the inside of his thighs, pushing them wider, his fist in Jesse’s hair unmoving.

 

“Sit up straight,” Gabriel ordered, pulling harder on the dirty strands in his fingers, “hands behind your back.”

 

Jesse yielded, trying to go where Gabriel put him, to do as he asked.

 

To please him, even when Gabriel was being rough, being unreasonable.

 

Gabriel released his hold on Jesse and crouched down in front of him, both hands hovering over his head.  They shook, and he gently let them settle against Jesse’s tangled hair, and pressed their foreheads together.  Gabe held on, exhaling harshly through his nose, eyes shut tight.

 

Listening to Jesse breathe, and he slid a hand down, and laid his palm over Jesse’s throat.  Felt for his pulse point, and when he found it he went still. Let Jesse’s heart beat under his fingers until his own finally calmed, and he could believe that Jesse was okay.

 

With him, and not lost on some meaningless mission.  Wasted like a bullet, blown like a grenade.

 

Used up, all because Gabriel had to treat him like an asset, when he was so much more.

 

“You can’t do that to me, Jesse.  You can’t. I’m the one sending you out, and if you don’t come back, I’m- I fucking-”

 

Jesse laid his hand over Gabe’s, pressing it harder against his throat, skin gritty and calloused on Gabriel’s knuckles.

 

“I can’t lose you, cariño.”

 

Jesse’s hand squeezed Gabriel’s, and it felt like an apology, even without words.

 

“I can’t promise I won’t do it again, Gabe, you know I can’t, and you’da done the same damn thing in my shoes.  But I promise I’ll do my best to come home to you, whatever it takes. I ain’t leaving you, not without a fight.  I’m okay, yeah? I’m still here.”

 

Gabriel opened eyes and pulled back to look at Jesse.  At the blood on his face, and the wild riot of his hair, mussed even further by Gabriel’s hands.

 

At the unchecked affection in his eyes, like Gabriel was all he needed right then.  All he’d ever need.

 

Then Jesse grinned, smug and self possessed, and Gabriel couldn’t help but thrill at the sight of it.  It was the kind of smile he never would have seen on Jesse when they first got together, not from his knees when he’d just done something Gabriel was unhappy about.

 

“Now, I reckon my memory ain’t always the best, but I think I recall you saying somethin’ about, what was it?  ‘Further instruction on how to follow basic commands’?”

 

Gabriel recognized a distraction tactic when he saw one, but dwelling on the ache in his chest and the guilt in his head wasn’t going to get either of them anywhere right then, so Gabriel didn’t call Jesse out on it.  Hummed instead, brushing Jesse’s hair back from his face and cocking his head.

 

“See, the thing is, you know how to follow basic commands.  You’re my good boy, yeah?” Jesse leaned into Gabriel’s hand and nodded, body relaxing at the phrase, a Pavlovian response at that point.  Ingrained in him to a gratifying degree, and all it took was Gabriel saying a few soft words to have Jesse unwinding.

 

“Been my good boy for a while, and I know I trained you right.  So you know how, but I think maybe you’re fuzzy on the consequences of your actions.  Haven’t had much cause to demonstrate them, but you’re a fast learner, so it shouldn’t be too hard.  Put you over my knee, have you behaving yourself again in no time, I bet,” Gabriel said, and Jesse nodded again, fast and overeager.  

 

He hadn’t really spanked Jesse before, not with any intensity.  He’d given him a few swats to see how he liked it, and Gabriel had been more than pleased with his reactions; Jesse loved being spanked.

 

Physical pain wasn’t the best way to punish Jesse, though.  He had a high tolerance, and he’d been taking beatings all his life, well before his training with special ops.  It wasn’t how Gabriel wanted to react to bad behavior, and it wouldn’t work for shit, anyway, not when Jesse could take everything Gabriel could dish out and then some.  Jesse wasn’t afraid of a little pain.

 

Or a lot of pain, even.

 

All Gabriel really had to do to have Jesse rethinking his choices was stop praising him.  One scene without telling him what a good boy he was, and Jesse would be twisting with displeasure, laden with regret and ready to beg.  

 

But Jesse hadn’t actually done anything wrong, and he knew it.  Knew Gabriel needed to punish him anyway, needed Jesse under his hands, doing as he was told.  

 

Needed to be in control when so much felt like it was slipping through his fingers, and Jesse didn’t mind giving that to him.  

 

_ It ain’t gotta always be for me, Gabe.  This is for you, too. Whatever you need. _

 

What Gabriel needed was Jesse over his lap, taking what he gave him without argument.  

 

“All right then.  I have something for you first.  Stay here, sit pretty.”

 

Gabriel walked over to his dresser and dug in one of the drawers, pulling out a long, flat box and then heading over to his bed.  He sat down, taking the lid off and folding back some tissue paper to reveal a strip of dark brown leather, wide and soft with a bronze ring inset just off center.  Gabe ran his fingers over it, tracing the ring, thumbing across the buckle.

 

He’d had a collar for Jesse for awhile now, had wanted to put one on him since their first scene together, but the timing had never felt right.

 

Now Gabriel realized how foolish it was, to wait for the right time for anything.  Jesse knelt a few feet away, bruised and bloody with a bullet graze across his cheek.  A few inches.

 

So close to losing everything.

 

Gabriel pulled the collar out and set the box aside, meeting Jesse’s eyes to find him staring.  Wide eyed, cheeks flushing, because Jesse knew what that collar meant to Gabriel, all the things he was saying without opening his mouth.

 

“Come here,” he said, and Jesse crawled forward on his hands and knees, coming to a stop between Gabriel’s feet.  

 

He fell back into position, sitting up straight and lifting his chin, breath gone shaky and overwhelmed.  Gabriel wrapped the collar around his throat, fastening the buckle with careful hands, tugging the ring into place.  His fingers slipped under the leather easily, testing to be sure it wasn’t too tight. Gabriel closed his fist around it, and tugged Jesse up high on his knees, until their faces were barely an inch apart.

 

Kissed him hard, Jesse’s lip splitting again under his mouth, the faintest hint of blood on Gabriel’s tongue.

 

“Mine,” he said, mumbling against Jesse’s lips, and Jesse nodded.  Too fast, too many times, just this side of frantic. Like Gabriel might change his mind.

 

If he didn’t know better by then, Jesse was a fool.

 

“Yours,” Jesse said, and Gabriel kissed him once more, and then smiled.

 

“Now be good for me.”

 

Gabriel manhandled Jesse over his knees without another word, spreading his own legs wide to keep Jesse balanced, careful to position his bruised ribs on the opposite side from himself.  Jesse flailed a bit as he settled into place, resting his forearms on the mattress where he spilled out of Gabriel’s lap, hips arching up. Gabriel took a generous handful of his ass and squeezed.

 

“Tell me you want it,” Gabriel said, and Jesse pushed back into his hand.

 

“I want it.  I want it, please, sir, give it to me,” Jesse begged, and it was a lost cause.

 

Gabriel couldn’t have refused even if he’d wanted to.

 

His hand fell, smacking loudly into Jesse’s ass, and Gabriel didn’t give him any time to recover before letting it land again on the other cheek.  They weren’t particularly hard, but it was enough to have Jesse fisting the blankets and twitching. Gabe didn’t pause, just swung his hand again, and again.  He switched sides between each blow, warming up the sensitive swells of Jesse’s ass with a steady rhythm until it was soft pink and throbbing.

 

So damn pretty, and Gabriel wanted to put his mouth on it, feel Jesse shudder as he licked over tender skin.

 

Jesse was getting hard against Gabriel’s thigh, spine curving to better take the strikes.  Lifting up on his arms, and he wasn’t grinding his hips down into Gabe yet, but it was only a matter of time.  Gabriel kneaded at his cheeks, one and then the other, fingers sinking greedily into the heated flesh.

 

“Tell me what you want,” Gabriel asked, and Jesse, god, he was so good.  Knew what to say, and when to say it, and it wasn’t even a lie.

 

“More.  Please, sir.”

 

_ Anything,  _ and Gabriel didn’t say it, but that didn’t make it less true.

 

“Good boy,” he said, and Jesse shivered as Gabriel cocked his arm back, and stopped fucking around.

 

The first real, actual blow had Jesse gasping, air leaving his lungs all at once as he rocked forward under the force of it.  His legs slid around on the blankets, like he was trying to get a better foothold, like it would help him somehow. Gabriel let his hand fall again, on the other side, handprints already blooming bright on Jesse’s ass from his earlier efforts.  Overlaid with each other, and they were beautiful there— Gabriel’s touch, branded into Jesse’s skin. 

 

Gabriel didn’t stop, spreading strikes out evenly over Jesse’s cheeks, alternating between sides.  It was loud, and hard, and Jesse jerked with every impact, breathing heavily through his nose and holding onto Gabriel’s blankets like a lifeline.  He whined in rough little exhales, and he wasn’t pushing back into the blows anymore, but only because he was thrusting his hips in helpless circles now, unable to resist.

 

Jesse was rock hard, and wet, precome smearing over Gabriel’s pants in a damp circle.  Gabriel hummed, shifting Jesse on his lap to give him a little more friction, and Jesse whimpered in gratitude.

 

“Thank you, sir,” he said, unashamed, everything about him open and unguarded right then.

 

Gabriel’s hand came down again and again, Jesse increasingly incoherent, head dropping onto the blanket, mouth hanging open.  Gabriel’s hand was sore, Jesse’s ass viciously red now; Gabriel could feel the heat coming off it, palm hovering a half-inch above his skin.  Instead of spanking him again Gabriel grabbed one cheek, and Jesse hissed as he dug his fingers deep into the meat of it. Gabriel urged Jesse’s hips into a faster rhythm, guiding him to fuck himself harder against Gabriel’s lap.  Jesse followed his lead, moving desperately, noises high pitched and needy.

 

“There you go, perfect,” Gabriel said, and Jesse let out a plaintive moan.

 

“Sir, I’m gonna- I need to come, sir, please,” he pleaded, and Gabriel smiled, and stroked over his hair.

 

“Come when you like.  Gonna spank you through it, all right?”  Gabriel asked, and Jesse nodded from where he was drooling on the blankets.

 

“Please, please, please,” he mumbled mindlessly as he worked his hips faster, feet sliding uselessly over the bed.

 

Gabriel waited until he knew Jesse was about to come— until his hips stuttered, and his eyes fell shut, and he made a beautiful, breathless groan.

 

Until he was right on the edge, falling into bliss, all of him shaking apart.

 

Then Gabriel slapped Jesse’s ass as he trembled through his orgasm.  Once, twice. Kept going until Jesse stopped shivering and went still in his lap, breathing like he’d run for miles, body loose and heavy.  He rubbed the abused expanse of Jesse’s ass, and Jesse jerked at the first touch, but relaxed into it. Gabriel brushed his hair out his eyes, and pet gently over the pulsing redness he’d worked into Jesse’s skin, watching him go drowsy.

 

Jesse turned his face towards Gabe, and Gabriel reached up to hook a finger in the ring on his collar, and tug lightly.

 

“Love you,” he said, tugging harder, squeezing Jesse’s ass, “even if you do dumb shit that almost gets you killed.”

 

Jesse grinned, half-lidded and spacey, fingers closing around Gabriel’s wrist to hold it there.

 

“Mmmm, sorry.  Love you too. Even if you’re a damn hypocrite who’s done the same fucking thing, chasing after me on an op to shoot me fulla biotics.”

 

Gabriel pulled his hair, and Jesse smiled wider, eyes blinking slow and drugged.

 

“Be a good boy and shut up, sweetheart,” he said, too softly to be anything but affectionate.

 

“‘M always a good boy,” Jesse mumbled, barely intelligible and closed his eyes.  Wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s waist, nuzzling into him with a sigh.

 

Gabriel waited until he was fairly sure Jesse was asleep to answer, hands still threading through his hair, skin warm under Gabe’s hands.

 

“Yeah, you are.”

 

He’d have to wake him up soon, wrangle him into the shower, dose him with some biotics for his ribs.  But right then Jesse was curled around Gabriel, breathing steady, clinging onto Gabe even in his sleep.

 

Warm, and vital, and alive.

 

Gabriel held him close, and stayed still, and let him rest.  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Tell me nice things, I'm thirsty.


End file.
